Conventionally, there were pull print systems that do not promptly output data that are instructed to be output by a client terminal from a multifunction peripheral (MFP) or a printer, but temporally store the output data in a print server or the like for controlling output and perform printing later. In the pull print systems, with an ID card, password authentication, and the like, a user logs in the desired MFP to perform printing and selects desired data from among data list that is displayed after login. Then, the selected data is printed out from the MFP.
In such pull print systems, in addition to the data output, pieces of information (hereinafter, referred to as “core information”) such as a unique ID, a print job name, a user name, and a print attribute of output data are stored in the print server. The MFP acquires a data list that is generated by core information and displays the data list.
The output data and the core information are stored not in the print server but in another storage device such as a hard disk, and the information can be read out from and written into the storage device from another print server. In this configuration, the data stored in the storages are managed in an integrated manner. As a result, an administrator advantageously can easily change storages of the core information.
When the print server and the data storage device are configured as different hardware units as described above, for example, if the print server is suspended and the storage device storing the core information is operating, although the MFP can acquire and display the data list, the MFP actually fails to perform printing. In this case, it is difficult for the user of the MFP to recognize the fact that the MFP cannot perform printing because the MFP displays the data list. That leads decreasing of an entire efficiency of the printing system.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances and an object thereof is to provide an output management device that can suppress decreasing of the entire efficiency of the printing system.